Everyone across the world has a family, anthropologist Meredith Small attests through her study of human behavior - even if that family has been lost, broken or transformed.
In "Family: How the Human Need for Belonging Shapes Our Lives," published in October by Pegasus Books, Small, anthropology professor emerita in the College of Arts and Sciences, examines the roots of the family and why this type of connection is the bedrock of human interaction in all cultures.
Starting with fossil evidence of family three million years ago and progressing to its varied expressions today, Small shows how family is not a fixed notion but something that has evolved with humans as a species. She also points out the wide variety of family configurations and practices found throughout the world.
"Although modern Western culture is fixated on the idea of family as mom + dad + kids, that configuration is only one rather simple way to make a family," Small says. "We are currently in a period in Western culture when we are experiencing dramatic changes in what we define as family, underscoring the flexibility of this particular social grouping."
Family is not just a group of blood relatives joined by genes, Small says, but a blending of genetic relatives with those connected by choice, vows and laws through practices including marriage and adoption.
"And those bonds are as strong as those of genes," she says.
The College of Arts and Sciences spoke with Small about the book.
Question: Why do you think it's important to look far back in time to explore this institution that shapes our lives every day?
Answer: Family is a small social group set within the larger social group of a culture or society. Family as a social system is universal, and we see evidence of family groups in our ancient history, as far back as 3.3 million years ago with the "First Family" fossils from Ethiopia (designated as australopiths) who appear to have lived in groups of adults and children.
There is also evidence of households of families with some members who are genetically related at various sites in the Neolithic, about 6,000 years ago. And now, all cultures, all peoples, have families, although they are constructed and operated in myriad ways.
Q: Why is now a good time to examine family?
A: In my lifetime as an American, I have seen the dramatic drop in female fertility (in this case meaning numbers of children) due to reliable birth control and active choice, which is also happening all over the world, and the consequential drop in overall family size. I've also seen the acceptance of same sex couples forming families; the increase in the number of unmarried women raising children; in unmarried couples having children; in the divorce rate; and the rate of remarriage after divorce, often leading to blended families formed from past marriages. There has also been an attitude change that allows for adding chosen or found members - friends and pets - as part of a family.
These are all major and dramatic social and demographic changes, and they have happened in the last 70 years. That's a lot of social change for a group that is supposedly the bedrock of human society, and it speaks to the innate flexibility of family as a concept.
Q: How do human families compare to groups various animals form?
A: Anthropologists look at nonhuman primates, especially monkeys and apes, to see if there are commonalities between broad patterns of their behavior and ours. If there are, that means the particular pattern of behavior is part of human nature - evolved patterns that must have served our species over time.
Family is also important to nonhuman primates. For all nonhuman primates, one sex always leaves to avoid inbreeding. Chimpanzee males stay with their mothers and interact with them for life, while females move to other groups at sexual maturity. Among macaque monkeys, the ones I studied, males leave while females stay with their mothers and sisters. They are matriarchal animals with strict dominance hierarchies. And they have demonstrated in field and laboratory studies that they know exactly who is related to whom. I've watched female macaques in trouble backed up during fights by their mothers, aunts and sisters. And they eat together, roam about together, and sleep close, and they maintain that closeness by preferential grooming among family members.
Q: Do you think learning about the concept and history of family might help some readers better understand their own?
A: I hope readers will realize there are all sorts of ways to form and operate a family. Given that, we might more easily accept and understand the various types of families that have emigrated into Western culture.
One reader of this book told me that he shops at a bodega in Brooklyn run by a man from Yemen who was saving money to bring his cousin to this country and marry her. Before reading my book, the reader said, he would have judged that man as odd for marrying his cousin, but the book helped him see there are various marriage patterns across the globe and in some places a cousin is considered the best choice ( for reasons of lineage).
Opening up people's understanding of how life and belief systems are very different in other cultures is critical, I believe, as we now cross cultures, political borders, and continent. It is now essential to realize there are many different ways to be human.
Kate Blackwood is a writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.
